News of the Week

In science news around the world this week, a deal is taking shape to save the Australian synchrotron; a fire at Brazil's Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station caused an explosion that killed two people, injured another, and destroyed about 70% of the station; ITER has dodged trouble with its superconducting cables; data from a declassified sub are shedding light on the Arctic; the World Bank is teaming up with major environmental groups and international nongovernmental organizations to raise $1.5 billion to improve ocean health; and space scientists in India are protesting colleagues' blacklisting.

The unprecedented births of two sets of twins in a population of owl monkeys that researchers have been studying for 15 years in Argentina is offering a "rare, exciting, and fascinating" research opportunity. Researchers in Spain are tapping a new database in their search for historic climate patterns: medieval Arab history. And this week's numbers quantify potential sources of human error in fingerprint analysis and the carbon footprint of shrimp farmed in former mangroves.

Half-time tenure-track slots that would allow women to be productive researchers while giving them more time to raise a family are one ingredient in Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci's recipe for change.

About The Cover

COVER An adult male brown anole, Anolis sagrei (length ~150 millimeters from snout to tail), perches atop a branch. The diameter of the vegetation used by brown anoles is a strong selective force on limb length. Lizards inhabiting previously unoccupied islands in the Bahamas show genetic and morphological differences due to random and selective processes. See page 1086. Photo: Neil Losin, University of California, Los Angeles, www.neillosin.com